Polyspeed® Laminates

Polyspeed® laminates are fiber-reinforced epoxy resin impregnated materials, that are supplied in a cured state with established mechanical properties, they are chemically stable and ready-to-use for compounding with foam or adhesives.

They are ideal wherever light, strong, durable materials are needed to resist high stresses and strains. Laminates are used as part of layer constructions and responsible for absorbing physical forces acting on the construction as a whole.

Hexcel manufactures a wide range of pressed laminates made with unidirectional or multidirectional carbon, glass and aramid reinforcements with weights from 200 to 2600 g/m2. Hexcel also offers hybrid laminates which are combinations of glass, carbon and aramid fibers in order to meet specific customer requirements regarding the mechanical properties.

Polyspeed® pre-cured glass/epoxy laminates are used in conjunction with prepreg in a vacuum bag lay-up to improve the surface quality of the cured laminate and reduce thickness variations. The laminates are coated with a release agent and positioned between the peel ply/release film and the bleeder layer in the blade lay-up. Without Polyspeed® the surface facing the bleeder materials may have some uneven areas and if they are used as a bond line then more adhesive will be required than if laminates had been used. Polyspeed® laminates can be reused several times for this application.

Polyspeed can also be used to make reinforced sandwich boards to combine with PU foam and make a panel to support the master model for a new blade.

Polyspeed® grid laminates are woven glass fiber epoxy laminates with an open grid structure, supplied in roll form in widths from 38mm to 1270mm.

The open grid structure provides reinforcement while the holes enable liquid resins or reactive foams to flow through the lay-up structure. Grid laminates are ideal for combined technologies where reactive liquid systems need to be combined with solid, already cured, composite parts. They enable large structures to be manufactured cost-effectively by combining infusion technology with laminates or other pre-cured load carrying structures such as pultruded components.

Grid laminates provide mechanical fixing for dry reinforcements which need to be infused and contribute to the final mechanical performance. They also reduce the use of auxiliary materials and can also reduce the amount of dry reinforcement required in wet processes as grid laminates contribute to the structural performance.

Polyspeed® grid laminates are available in a wide range of fiber areal weights from 500 to 1600 g/m2 glass, with flexibility on mesh size of the grid pattern.